Thanks for joining me on my crafty journey. I'm now retired which gives me the chance to spend a lot more time indulging myself in my crafty habit!!!
I'm part of four Design Teams and absolutely love the work I do with them.
It's very exciting to get your work shown on TV and I never cease to get excited when a show is coming up. It's lovely to see what the team have produced.
I appreciate all my followers on my blog and thank you all so much for following my journey.

Followers

Monday, 31 March 2014

Wow time is whizzing by - we've changed the clocks, moved into springtime, a new month of April and a new Clarity Challenge,

We had so many smashing entries in the last Challenge - well done to our Winner and Top 5.

This month the theme is Monochrome. I spent a day at the NEC about 10 days ago where I met up with good friends Jo Rice, Theresa Pace and Jane Barber. We also spent quite a bit of time on the stand with the Clarity Team. I also had the pleasure of meeting Margaret Craner for the first time, Obviously there were new goodies on the Clarity stand which just had to come home with me! I got several new Clarity Stencils and decided it would be a good idea to use one for my inspiration for the Monochrome Challenge.

For this card I used linen effect card which I covered with silver metallic Panpastel. I then masked off a large part of the Stencil with masking tape as I only wanted to use a small part of the stencil, I used Black archival ink for the left hand side of the card and then moved the Stencil and used Diamond Sparkle Medium for the right hand side of the piece. I then stamped the Clarity sentiment again with black Archival ink. Layered then onto Clarity Glossy card to frame the piece before adding it to the base card.

Why not join us in the Challenge this month, you could be the lucky winner of a £50 Clarity Voucher.

As I used silver metallic Panpastel for the background of this card I'd like to enter it into the Panpastel Challenge - Metallics Inspirations.

Tuesday, 25 March 2014

Wow I have had such a lovely crafty few days. I was lucky enough to visit the Hobbycraft show at the NEC last Thursday where I met up with lots of fabulous friends. Then on Sunday I was delighted to attend a Hels Sheridan Melt Pot Workshop at Craftasmic in Taunton. A Hels workshop has been on my wish list for a long time and it certainly didn't disappoint!

These pictures show the lovely goodies I came home with and I've also added a photo of Hels with the lovely owners of Craftasmic.

Hels is very generous with her knowledge and her goodies, she couldn't have been kinder.

Have you been over to Hels blog? She's giving the chance to win an amazing prize. You can find it HERE.

I would like to enter the Challenge with the canvas I made at the Workshop.

I visited the NEC Hobbycraft show last week where I purchased Indigoblu's new Metallic Acrylic Paints in silver, gold and copper. I was intrigued to find out how they would work for the Monoprinting technique.

It produced a much more subtle effect than my first project, with a lovely shimmer finish. I had on my desk a piece of work I had stamped and embossed on to acetate using Indigoblu stamps. It looked quite effective placed over the shimmery background so I added a sun to the background using the gold metallic paint and then matted and layered onto orange and black card stock to compliment.

Morning all and welcome to my new followers, I really appreciate your support and interest in what I do.

I Subscribe to Craft Stamper Magazine and noticed that they have a new Challenge, this month the Challenge is to make a Monoprint using an acrylic block.

For my entry I used Acrylic paint on a Slim Jim block. When the print was dry I stamped using the Stampendous Ranunculus Stamp. Out of a lighter part of the print I cut out the flowers, embossed them using clear Ultra fine embossing powder (unfortunately the lovely glaze doesn't show up too well in my picture). I added a faux stitching stamp as a frame and a die cut butterfly from the same print which I embossed in silver. I hadn't used this technique before but really enjoyed it.

Friday, 21 March 2014

Morning all - I'm sorry I'm a little late on parade today as I spent a lovely day yesterday at the NEC Hobbycraft show. I met up with loads of crafty friends which is always a special treat.

Today is the start of a new Fussy and Fancy Challenge but firstly I would like to thank everyone who entered the last Challenge and well done to the winners.

My little bit of inspiration for this month is a little wall hanging.

My knew "thing" is using packaging wherever it fits in. For this project I cut my piece of cardboard and stripped off some of the paper to reveal the corrugated strips which give lovely texture. I rubbed over some Gesso and then began to add my pretty goodies.

A tag, washi tape, crochet ribbon, paper flower, distressed tag all topped off by the lovely Big Butterfly from Indigoblu. I coloured the butterfly with silver and gold Wink of Stellar pens but unfortunately the shimmer doesn't show in the photo.

Looking forward to seeing your entries, have a good weekend and thank you so much for visiting my blog.

Thursday, 6 March 2014

I used Morris Dance gilding flakes on double sided adhesive then on the other side I attached heat resistant acetate. I then stamped onto the acetate, using the Wild Meadow set, and heat embossed it with black embossing powder.

For the side panel I embossed the burlap panel (from the Sarah's Choice set) using detail gold embossing powder (I stamped this twice).

For the sentiment I used the free stamp from the April, 2014 Craft Stamper Magazine. This I stamped in black Archival, dried with the heat gun and then over stamped it, slightly offset, with Versamark and embossed again with gold detail powder.

I then mat and layered the gilding flake piece onto gold mirri card, black card and Kraft card to frame to frame the work. The sentiment I layered onto black card.

A bow made from Champagne coloured crinkle ribbon covered the join in the burlap stamps,

Below is a second version where I layered a butterfly, which had been gold embossed onto acetate, over the black butterfly which acted as a shadow,